Comparing Google Play Music, Spotify, Apple Music and Microsoft Groove Music
I’ve been back and forth between using streaming services and outright owning my music for the past couple years, depending on how often I discover new music and what features (radio stations, etc) I want. I’ve been using Google Play Music since November, but recently decided to try some competitors: Spotify, Apple Music and Microsoft’s Groove Music.
I alternated between each music service , trying to spend a week using each exclusively, but as I’ll detail below there were times I had could only choose between two of the services. I used the services on my Nexus 6P running Android 6.0.1.
Uploading my personal collection was fairly simple. Google Play Music has an upload program, Apple Music and Spotify can collect music from their desktop programs, and Groove Music pulls music from folders in a user’s OneDrive. For all except Play Music, adding your personal collection is as easy as dragging them in and letting each service upload them. For Play Music, just select your music folders inside the program, and the songs will be uploaded. All in all, it’s not difficult at all to import your music to any of the services.
Download the music to your phone is where things split up. For Play Music, Groove Music & Apple Music, you have to select each album and click download. I have 309 albums, so selecting each one to get my music offline takes a lot of time. Spotify’s method is MUCH simpler: navigate to “Songs” in the menu, and click the “Available Offline” button. Right away, all your music will begin downloading and your fingers will be saved.
All the services have identical features like saving your music offline, radio stations, pre-composed playlists to fit your mood, and searching and adding individual tracks or albums.
Groove Music gave me a lot of trouble to get it to recognize I upgraded to the Premium account; I had to uninstall and reinstall the app for it to work. When I finally did get it to work, the recommendations didn’t seem to be based on any of the music I had in my library, suggesting artists like Drake, Justin Beiber, Panic! At The Disco and others I don’t particularly care for.
For Apple Music, the recommendations were much closer to what I listened to, with REM, Beach Boys and Indie Rock stations being the first presented to me. When I started a station, I found Apple Music did the best job with selecting music. For example if I started a Johnny Cash station on Spotify, Play Music or Groove Music, the other artists that came up would be country artists from the 1950’s-1980’s, while Apple Music would focus on artists that recorded at Sun Studios in the 1950’s and performed alongside Cash in later eras. Because of this, the music choice sounded a lot more consistent.
Of all the apps, Spotify wins for me for interface. As much as I like radio stations, 90% of the time I want to just dive into my own collection. Spotify opens right to Your Library, and getting to Songs or Albums is only one more click. Groove and Apple are tied for second best, requiring three taps to get from the default screen to Songs. Apple Music opens to recommended radio stations and albums. To get to Songs, open the side menu, click My Music, then select Songs; three taps in total. On Groove, open the side menu, click Collection, then click Songs. Google Play Music opens to a recommended page, and takes four taps to get to Songs. Open the side menu, click My Library, scroll sideways, then click Songs.
Spotify also wins for support: there’s a very good desktop client, and the mobile app supports the Google Cast standard for connecting to either my TV or speakers as well as supporting Android Auto. Best of all, you can switch between playing music on your phone and desktop with one click, and resume the same song without missing a beat. Google Play Music supports Android Auto and Google Cast, but doesn’t have an official desktop client. Apple Music & Groove have good desktop players (Apple Music is within iTunes), but I can’t use them with Android Auto in my car or Cast the music to my TV.
The only thing that keeps me from using Spotify is music selection. When you go to upload your music to any of the services, they’ll all check the music tags to see if your songs are on their servers, then add the server versions to your collection. For Play, Groove and Apple, if the servers don’t have your track, the original gets uploaded and can be downloaded and played without issue. On Spotify, everything depends on whether an artist has given Spotify permission to host their music. If not, it doesn’t show in your collection. For example, even though I bought 1989 by Taylor Swift and 25 by Adele legally, I can’t listen to either album in Spotify because of the licensing agreements.
I love trying new things just to see whether I’ll like them. I was very ready to switch to Spotify based on the excellent desktop player and all around support. However, content comes first, so I’ll be sticking with Google Play Music. Apple and Groove Music are also great options for a majority of people, I’m just a bit of a niche case. I would recommend to Spotify to most anyone, with the caveat to check if their favorite album is available first. Each service has a trial period, so there’s no harm in trying them all and seeing which fits you best.
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